The National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) is supporting a five-year project of the ELKH Centre for Economic and Regional Studies (KRTK) that aims to study the market for managers through its 2022 Frontline – Research Excellence Program. The research team lead by senior research fellow Miklós Koren, will analyze data from Germany and Hungary from the last few decades to explain how the demand and supply of business executives meet.
Some companies are more successful than others. These differences are even larger between countries: a typical German company operates more efficiently than a typical Hungarian one. One of the explanations for corporate success is good management. In better managed firms, targets and objectives are regularly measured and the incentives of workers and managers are tied to meeting these targets.
This research examines to what extent good managers can contribute to economic performance at the national level. Three quantifiable theories will be offered to study the market for managers and estimate these on data from Germany and Hungary. Researchers will examine the growth in the number of managerial positions and managers after the economic liberalization of the 1990s; how foreign managers can help local economic performance; and the spread of trading practices across firms as managers move. The work is expected to demonstrate whether an efficient market for managers can help national economic development.